Self-service is the practice of serving oneself, and can be utilized over the Internet to facilitate automated customer service interactions. Self-service users generally desire to access their account data through a medium, such as the Internet. For example, a customer of a utility company generally desires the ability to manage their utility accounts, monitor consumption of utilities, manage billing information, and interact with the utility company. Thus, the utility company can provide a web portal system that allows the customer to access such account information over the Internet.
It is desirable that only the self-service user (or perhaps a proxy) be able to access the account data. Thus, a way for self-service users to validate themselves when accessing their account data through the Internet is generally required to prevent unauthorized access to account information. A user can create a login and password and potentially link that login with a single account in an account management system. However, it can be difficult to scale that process for multiple accounts in an automated fashion.